HOUSEHOLD BUDGET

Taranaki Daily News, 22 January 1921, Page 10

HOUSEHOLD BUDGET

DOWNWARD TREND AT LAST, PRICES PAST THE PEAK | The Food Minister for the Household will be a happy person to-day when she discovers that her weekly budget should no longer call for supplementary estimates. The cost of living has reached its highest point, apparently, and is at lorig last on the decline (says the Auckland Star). Putting the all-important act in dry official language, what has happened is this: The index number for the three food groups for November shows a decrease of twelve points compared with the preceding month, and this, in turn, shows that groceries and dairy produce in New Zealand have become cheaper. Tea (the forenoon and afternoon solace of Government departments), rice, potatoes and cereal preparations such as rolled oats, cost less, while butter being fixed in price brings down the dairy products points by 16 as compared with the preceding month. The cost of living is, of course, still far above what it was before fthe Great War came to threaten the world with a food shortage, but it seems at last definitely on the down grade, and that is really what matters. CHEAPER GROCERY PRICES. “Your groceries should cost you less,” is in effect the statement of leading produce merchants asked by the Star whether the trend of prices, as indicated in the Government Statistician’s figures, was borne out by the facts within their knowledge. ‘‘Yes,” said one authority in answer to the question, “I think it will be generally admitted in the provision trade that we must look for a period of lower prices. Within the last month or so there have been quite notable reductions in some commodities—oatmeal, bacon, eggs, meat and many kinds of vegetables already have fallen in price, and some may go lower still. In general I would venture to say that prices have ‘passed the peak,’ and that during the present year we shall see a reasonable decline. There will be fluctuations, of course, due to the fact that we are not yet back to normal, but on the whole the housekeeper should benefit.” No sensational change in prices may be expected, according to the information the Star was able to obtain. “There will be nothing phenomenal about it, neither do I think there will be unemployment or trade disorganisation. It will be a gradual process, I fancy, going from week to week with occasional setbacks, which, however; should be only temporary. This week, you notice tea and bacon and eggs and cereal lines are down considerably. This does not say tl ai for special reasons one or more of these commodities may not increase again in price. But looking over the whole range we.are prepared for lower prices than those i;m» l. : ng fm a lung time past.” SOUTH ISLAND PRICES. Reports from the South Island bear out these views. Stock is getting cheaper, it is said, and butchers look for the decline to be reflected in meat prices. Fish is no longer as dear as it used to be; neither is bacon. Breakfast foods are expected' to sympathise with the reduction in bacon. So, “taking one consideration with another” (like the policeman in the Gilbert and Sullivan opera) the householder’s lot is likely in the near future to be happier than it has been for many moons.